On the ground floor of a deteriorating county courthouse, in a room outfitted with temporary office furniture and tangles of electrical wires, a cornerstone of America’s criminal justice system is crumbling.
A 20-year-old man in a green jail jumpsuit appears on a video monitor that faces a judge. It is early June, and he has been arrested for driving a car with a gun locked in the glove compartment.
If he were in almost any other courtroom in the country, he’d be ordered to stay behind bars until he posted bail — if he could afford it. This is what millions of people charged with crimes from shoplifting to shootings have done for more than two centuries. The bail system, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, is meant to ensure that all defendants, presumed innocent before trial, get a shot at freedom and return to court.
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Bail reform led to bondsmen like Al McCallen in Jersey City becoming obsolete almost overnight
North Korea on Sunday claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb designed to be placed on a newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile — prompting a barrage of responses from President Donald Trump, including a ominously vague answer when asked if he would “attack” the country.
This is the sixth time that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test, and underground explosion seems likely to ratchet up already high tensions between the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump.
“North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb at noon on September 3rd and succeeded totally,” a newscaster announced on state television. “The H-bomb test was carried out to examine and confirm the accuracy and credibility … of [an] H-bomb to be placed in the payload of the [intercontinental ballistic missile].”
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King, 34, is among the North Koreans living in New Malden. Carolina Reid / NBC News
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh just discovered 91 new volcanoes in Antarctica, bringing the total number of volcanoes in the region up to 138. Their biggest concern is that some of these volcanoes might be active.
The executive order “will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become the new normal,” he said.
The Obama limitations hurt law enforcement, Sessions added.
“One sheriff told me earlier this year about how, due to the prior administration’s restrictions, the federal government made his department return an armored vehicle that can change the dynamics of an active shooter situation,” he said.
Jim Pasco, the police organization’s executive director, said the change “is President Trump making good on a campaign promise.” Pasco said he and other police officials discussed the issue with the president and attorney general two times during meetings at the White House.
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A police tactical team moves in to disperse a group of protesters in Ferguson, Missouri on Aug. 9, 2014. Jeff Roberson / AP file
Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued grand jury subpoenas in recent days seeking testimony from public relations executives who worked on an international campaign organized by Paul Manafort, people directly familiar with the matter told NBC News.
This is the first public indication that Mueller’s investigation is beginning to compel witness testimony before the grand jury — a significant milestone in an inquiry that is examining the conduct of President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, among others.
It is also further indication that Manafort, Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, could be in serious legal jeopardy.
. Paul Manafort after a meeting of Donald Trump’s national finance team at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York on June 9, 2016. Brendan McDermid / Reuters file
Think virtual reality is just about gaming and the world of make-believe? Get real. From product design to real estate, many industries have adopted VR and related technologies— and nowhere are the benefits of VR greater than in healthcare.
“We are seeing more and more of this incorporated faster than ever before,” said Dr. Ajit Sachdeva, Director of Education with the American College of Surgeons. “VR has reached a tipping point in medicine.”
As NBC News MACH reported previously, psychologists have found VR to be good for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. And stroke doctors, pain specialists, surgeons, and other medical practitioners have found their own uses for VR. In some cases, medical VR involves the familiar headsets; in others, 3D glasses and special video screens give a VR-like experience.
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Sarah DiGiulio
Surgeons can now don VR headsets to virtually fly through their patient’s brain or body.
Tiny versions of human organs smaller than a pea are making a big splash around the world — and for a good reason. Though the clusters of cells of brain, kidney, or liver aren’t much to look at, experts say these so-called “organoids” and “organs-on-a-chip” are poised to remake the way new drugs are brought to market.
Right now, drug development is notoriously slow and costly; bringing a new drug to market can take a dozen years and cost upward of $2 billion. Even after all that time and money have been spent, new drug candidates often prove to be ineffective — or to have dangerous side effects.
“A huge percentage of drugs fail even after hundreds of millions or billions of dollars of investment,” says Dr. Donald Ingber, director of Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and a leader in organ-on-a-chip technology. In fact, only about one in 10 drugs that make it to human tests (after testing in the lab and in animals) wind up getting FDA approval.
Hurricane Harvey intensified to a Category 2 hurricane by early Friday as it moved toward Texas, with meteorologists forecasting that the storm could be a Category 3 “major hurricane” when it makes landfall late Friday or early Saturday.
No storm that strong has hit Texas since 2008.
Harvey is expected to stall after it hits land, dumping torrential rain over the southeast Texas region through Tuesday and causing potentially historic flooding, NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said.
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‘Be Nice Harvey’ adorns a boarded-up business Thursday in Port Aransas, Texas. Eric Gay / AP
Ever since the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was called the first “skyscraper” in 1885, architects have been striving to create ever-taller buildings. Ten stories quickly became 20, 20 became 50, and on and on. In 2009 the Burj Khalifa in Dubai became the world’s tallest building, with its 154 floors towering above ground level.
So why is the mayor of Portland, Oregon, calling a modest 12-story tower set for completion there next year “a true technological and entrepreneurial achievement?” It’s not the affordable housing the building affords, nor its dozens of bike racks or even the roof farm that has Ted Wheeler gushing. It’s that the Framework apartment building will be made almost entirely of wood.
Once completed, Framework will be America’s tallest wooden building and its first “plyscraper” — a high-rise building built with panels made of cross-laminated timber (CLT). These modular sheets are made from cheap, sustainable softwood that are glued or pinned together in layers — a bit like super-strong, super-thick plywood. – Eco-Friendly ‘Plyscrapers’ Are on the Rise.
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Mark Harris
Framework is slated to become the first mass timber high-rise in the U.S. Artist’s rendering courtesy of LEVER Architecture .
The five-bedroom house in New York’s Long Island suburbs — listed for nearly $1.3 million — boasts a southern exposure and proximity to a country club.
But here’s what’s more interesting: The seller, a Chinese national named Sun Sidong, has been linked by American security experts to a network of Chinese companies under Treasury sanctions for helping companies and individuals who support North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
According to Chinese corporate filings, Sun is the listed owner of Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co., which has shared an email address with another Chinese company, Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co., a coal exporter suspected of helping North Korea evade sanctions.
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Chi Yupeng is the majority owner of Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co. A civil complaint filed by the Justice Department Tuesday alleges that companies he controls helped North Korea evade sanctions. Bohai University
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Bail reform led to bondsmen like Al McCallen in Jersey City becoming obsolete almost overnight
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James' World 2 